Sue is the founder of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents blog, established in 2005.. She has an MSW from the University in Pittsburgh and a BA in Political Science from Marymount University. Her undergraduate claim to fame is a six month stint as an intern with then Congressman Rick Santorum in 1991. Born and raised in West Mifflin, Sue attended college in Washington DC, then graduate school in Louisiana and ended up in Kentucky doing social service ministry. She returned to Pittsburgh in 1997. She now lives on Pittsburgh’s Northside with her wife, Laura. She was among the first out LGBTQ people named to Pittsburgh’s 40 Under 40 in 2004 and is a graduate of Leadership Development Initiative Class VII. After being fully and permanently disabled in 2010, Sue has continued to serve the community. She founded the Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project to address hunger and environmental issues. In 2015, she launched the #AMPLIFY LGBTQ archive in conjunction with a two-year artist in residence stint with Most Wanted Fine Art. Sue and her wife have fostered over 25 kittens through Pittsburgh CAT and Homeless Cat Management Team, and now manage multiple community cat colonies in their neighborhood. In 2020, Sue cofounded the Pittsburgh MasQUe ProjecT to support the queer and trans community during the pandemic, distributing tens of thousands of face masks and other supplies throughout the region. In 2021, Sue created the #PghCatFolx projects to support neighbors working with community cats. Under that heading came the Dr. John P. Ruffing DVM Pet Food Projects, memorializing one of her very best friends who died in 2007. In 2021, Sue worked with community leaders to develop and establish a 501c3 nonprofit organization, Pittsburgh LGBTQ Charities (PLC) where she currently serves as Board President. PLC absorbed the #PghCatFolx projects. Also in 2021, Sue was the first person in history appointed to the City of Pittsburgh LGBTQIA+ Commission and was unanimously elected as one of three inaugural co-chairs. Her blogging has garnered numerous awards Favorite GLBT Media Publication - 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 (Keystone Alliance Gaylife Newsletter Reader’s Poll) Favorite GLBT Social Media - 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 (Keystone Alliance Gaylife Newsletter Reader’s Poll) Best Local Blogger - 2016, 2019 (Pittsburgh City Paper Reader’s Poll) LGBTQIA Pittsburgh’s Best Blogger - 2020 (SisTersPgh, People’s Pride of Pittsburgh) Outstanding Blog - 2019, 2022 (GLAAD Media Awards) Sue has also personally been honored Person of the Year - The Advocate Magazine, 2022 15 Lesbian Icons - LGBTQ Nation, 2023 LGBTQIA Pittsburgh’s Best Lesbian Activist - SisTersPgh, People’s Pride of Pittsburgh 2022 Sue believes in identifying and filling gaps in supports & services rather than recreating the wheel. She uses both her undergraduate and graduate degrees on a regular basis as a blogger and activist and regularly circulates her 1991 internship photo just to shake things up on her social media feeds. Her own experiences with cPTSD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and other health challenges have fueled her health blogging and activism. She also writes extensively about her family history, drawing on her amateur genealogy hobby. The blog regularly reviews arts and cultural events as well as exploring restaurants, soap opera storylines, and hyper-local news. Sue and her wife Laura have been together since 2003. They were married on a very cold February 2, 2021 in their backyard at a very small ceremony co-officiated by their pagan priestess friend, Anne, and then-Mayor Bill Peduto. They have six niblings, four in Pittsburgh and two in Philadelphia.

Meet Our New Foster Kittens: The #FayetteFive

Five little kittens in a collage

Let me set the stage. Four years ago on May 8, 2019, we ‘plucked’ an orange fluff ball from our backdeck. The next day, we were accepted as a kitten foster home by Pittsburgh CAT and over the next five days, trapped the entire litter – all five of them. You may remember then as […]

Review: A Mother Son/Duo Reviews Dear Evan Hansen

I feel as if this play told the perfect personal view of what it’s like to suffer from social anxiety and feel as if you don’t matter or no one is watching. Our review of Dear Evan Hansen currently at The Benedum is a little different. We sent our reviewer Sarah and her 16-year-old son, […]

Black Trans Man Banko Brown, 24, Shot to Death by Walgreens Security Guard in San Francisco

headshot of a young Black man wearing a yellow sweatshirt and a yellow viser upside down

Banko Brown, a 24-year-old Black trans man, is the most recent reported victim of anti-trans violence after he was fatally shot by a security guard in a San Francisco Walgreens. Banko used the surnames Brown and Paso. At approximately 6:33 p.m., SFPD officers from Tenderloin Station responded to a report of a shooting at 825 […]

Q&A with Weldianne Scales, Candidate for Magistrate District Judge 05-2-08

The biggest challenge of getting real justice for LGBTQ+ community members is to have judges who are culturally competent and lack bigotry. Judges need to use proper names and pronouns, of course, but judges also need to understand, and to be willing to understand, the particular problems and needs of members of this community, and […]

My Haudenosunee Dream Catcher

Dream Catcher

I am not of Indigenous or Native descent. I am a descended from white European colonizers, mainly from the British Isles and Western Europe who settled in what we now label as Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina. I do try to listen and learn from my Indigenous friends, colleagues, and trusted sources. I’ve tried to […]

Sue Kerr Named One of 15 ‘Lesbian Icons’ By LGBTQNation

When I was a young child, I remember riding with my grandmother in their car and asking her to identify her favorite part of her life. This was in the mid-1970’s. She didn’t miss a beat when she said “In my 50s.” I did the math and realized that was pre-me. She confirmed and said […]

Anti-Trans Lawyer Behind 2017 Failed Bathroom Ban in Pine-Richland School District Running for School Board in 2023

Mike Wiethorn is so committed to harassing and bullying trans and queer kids in the Pine Richland School District that six years after suffering a significant judicial defeat about anti-trans policies, he’s decided to run for a seat on the PR school board District 3 candidate, Mike Wiethorn. Mike is an attorney with 30 plus […]

Honored by Pittsburgh Equality Center

The Pittsburgh Equality Center gave me a great honor by focusing on my work in their newsletter as a Community Leader. In this month’s newsletter, we will explore the history of Lesbian Visibility Day, and I am thrilled to note that we will be spotlighting a special member of the Pittsburgh LGBTQIA+ community – the inspiring […]

Lesbian Visibility Day

I don’t have a lot of bandwidth to share today due to a cruddy stomach virus. I’d prefer to be eating soup than writing this post. But it feels necessary to show up in this space with intent and purpose. Lesbian Visibility Day is dedicated to increasing the awareness of lesbian women and their issues. […]

Sitting in Lynn Cullen’s Shadow

The first time I called Lynn Cullen’s talk radio program was in 1999. I was living in my parents basement while finishing graduate school. I have no recollection of why I called or what I wanted to say, I just remember what she said to me. Her sister Susan was on the air with her […]